Maine’s biggest solar farm now operational

The final 25% of a 26,000-panel, 5-megawatt array spread over more than 20 acres at the Madison Business Gateway, was brought online Wednesday.

The Portland Press Herald reported it's the state's largest solar array, which will generate enough electricity to power 700 homes. Madison Electric Works, a department of the town of Madison, signed a 26-year agreement with Ohio-based IGS Solar to purchase the electricity produced by the array at 7.99 cents per kilowatt. After six years, the utility will have the right to purchase the energy farm, which generates enough electricity to satisfy the needs of about 20% of the district's customers.

"Completion of this solar array allows MEW to continue to contain costs for our residential, commercial, and industrial customers, while also using renewable energy," MEW General Manager Calvin Ames said in a release.

Earlier this summer, Cianbro Corp. of Pttisfield, a subcontractor on the Madison array, announced that a larger array of 41,000 panels and generating 9.9 megawatts, in Pittsfield, would go online by the end of 2017.